A Retrospect on Thanksgiving

6:00 AM

I decided now that Christmas is past, it's ok to post pictures from Thanksgiving.

Living backwards,sort of.

So this was my family's Thanksgiving at the Farm this past year.

Randad wanted the above picture taken as proof that Ruby liked him. Apparently, she has never particularly warmed to my dad, so this moment between the two of them was very special.

Gage, seated beside Randad, is always lovable!

Wyeth and I are bundled up to go outside!

A common sight at the Farm - cousins reading books together.

Since Brooklyn and August are the only readers so far, they get lots of requests.

Baby Nehemiah, Melissa and Chad's youngest, got lots of time with his older cousins. All the cousins truly adore their smaller cousins. It's pretty endearing to watch. Although, I should qualify that by saying Wyeth took a big bite out of Nehemiah's head over Thanksgiving. It really didn't seem hostile, though, so much as curiosity. Hopefully Nehemiah won't hold it against him.

Rachel and DD take turns reading books to Merrick, Tagg and Gage.

Now it's Brooklyn's turn with Nehemiah!

Jeremiah's friend, Andrew, joined us for Thanksgiving again this year. Andrew is like another member of the family. He went to grad school with Jeremiah at OU and has spent many holidays with us because his family lives in California. We love him. Since neither he nor Jeremiah contributed food to our holiday, they served us by doing the dishes every meal. This scene made me laugh: two young men in camo pants discussing the proper way to load a dishwasher while Ruby, in her diaper, looks on.

Wyeth and I get a turn interacting with baby N.

The absolute highlight of this Thanksgiving was the "Minute to Win It" Game Night created by Lauren. She put a ton of time and energy into planning what may be one of the most enjoyable evenings our family has ever spent together. Adults only. All the kids had to cheer us on from the bunk beds. I don't think any of us have ever laughed so hard in our lives. It was priceless!

The first game was the Elephant Walk where you wore a pair of hose on your head with a ball down in the foot. You had to swing your head and knock over water bottles set up at your feet. It was absolutely hilarious! Lauren set it up so we all participated in heats of 3 or 4.

The second game was juggling balloons for 1 minute. Or, whoever still had all three balloons in the air the longest. Also totally hysterical.

Another game was bouncing all the balls out of a box strapped to your bum. It made for some pretty awesome dancing.

There was also shooting rubber bands at a dangling piece of toilet paper to see who could tear the toilet paper off first. This was not as easy as it looks. Kyle had great success, but several others shot and shot and shot and couldn't get the paper to tear. Hm...

Brooklyn tried out the elephant game once the grown-ups finished up.

Wyeth spent much of the time uncertain about what was happening, and frankly, worried about his Momma. As you'll see in the videos, he did a lot of wailing.

Morgan looked pretty funny wearing his stocking cap.

One game was tossing marshmallows through a wreath strung in the bathroom door, trying to land the marshmallows in a bucket on the other side. Kyle and Josh were amazing at this game!

August practiced his elephant walk alone off to the side...

The best of all games was the Oreo one where you place an Oreo on your forehead and have to work it down your face into your mouth, using just your facial movements. I managed to win my team's round with no small degree of face twitching, as you'll see.

Merrick, Brooklyn, Sawyer and Avery chill in the hammock.

Randad and August drove Big Blue together. August loves spending time with Randad doing "men" things.

A typical picture of Farm time...Grandma Barbara holding little ones (to the left in the rocking chair)...DD talking with her daughters-in-law, bikes strewn about, picnic tables set up for the kids...and in this instance, a brand new TV purchased for the Farm hangs out on the porch awaiting installation.